2007 Mazda Mazdaspeed3

These incidents aside, we appreciate this car for its well-rounded utility and driving entertainment. The interior has shown resilience between hauling passengers and masses of cargo, although we did notice an ever-developing rattle that seemed to stem from the slightly chintzy flip-up navigation screen. We also never really warmed up to the balky shifter (you should see the counterweight attached to this thing), or the non linear clutch engagement.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

As we neared 40,000 miles, a point in the test where we would normally start winding things down, had a different finale in mind. Lucky for us, this is a manufacturer whose enthusiasm for motorsports trickles down to its product line and offers performance upgrades for those who need them. We wanted to find out what the Mazdaspeed department had up its sleeves for our MS3, so, we gave it back to Mazda and awaited the result.

Most Popular

Seven days later, our MS3 returned faster, lower, louder and about $5353 more expensive. Parts included a fully adjustable coil-over suspension, a cold-air intake, a cat-back sport exhaust and a set of forged aluminum 18-in. wheels wrapped in Falken Azenis RT-615 rubber. It was easy enough to pull the trigger on the entire catalog with Mazda footing the bill, but had we needed to reach into our own pockets for cash, we would stick to just the coil-overs, the cold-air intake (if it was still offered) and peruse the Tire Rack website for any specials on sticky rubber.

The coil-overs add a commendable amount of suspension crispness with nearly double the spring rate, plus compression/rebound/ride height adjustability at all four corners. We played around a bit outside factory recommendations (which were spot-on for performance), and feel that a few clicks softer would probably best serve your daily driving needs. Lastly, the cold-air intake is a no-brainer after reviewing the ridiculous post-upgrade dyno numbers which were up 24 whp and 28 lb.-ft. of torque (Mazda is hard at work on a new intake system for current models).

So with that, Road & Track returns its first ever OE-enhanced long-term car with a newfound respect and belief that the minds engineering a great factory car can just as easily outdo themselves.